Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) instruments are often preferred over traditional open surgical devices due to reduced post-operative recovery time and minimal scarring. Endoscopic surgery is one type of MIS procedure in which an elongate flexible shaft is introduced into the body of a patient through a natural orifice. Laparoscopic surgery is another type of MIS procedure in which one or more small incisions are formed in the abdomen of a patient and a trocar is inserted through the incision to form a pathway that provides access to the abdominal cavity. Through the trocar (i.e., a trocar cannula), a variety of instruments and surgical tools can be introduced into the abdominal cavity to engage and/or treat tissue in a number of ways to achieve a diagnostic or therapeutic effect.
One surgical instrument commonly used with a trocar is a surgical clip applier, which can be used to ligate blood vessels, ducts, shunts, or portions of body tissue during surgery. Traditional surgical clip appliers have a handle and an elongate shaft extending from the handle. A pair of movable opposed jaws is positioned at the end of the elongate shaft for holding and forming a surgical clip (alternately referred to as a “ligation clip”) therebetween. In operation, a user (e.g., a surgeon or clinician) positions the jaws around the vessel or duct and squeezes a trigger on the handle to close the jaws and thereby collapse the surgical clip over the vessel.
More recently, however, robotic systems have been developed to assist in MIS procedures. Instead of directly engaging a surgical instrument, users are now able to manipulate and engage surgical instruments via an electronic interface communicatively coupled to a robotic manipulator. A user need not even be in the operating room with the patient during robotic surgery.
Robotic surgical systems are also now capable of utilizing robotically controlled clip appliers. Such clip appliers include features for robotically feeding and forming surgical clips. Advances and improvements to the methods and devices for applying surgical clips to vessels, ducts, shunts, etc. is continuously in demand to make the process more efficient and safe.